Slide fastener



y 1949' o. KOLBERT ETAL 2,470,251

SLIDE FASTENER Filed Feb. 3. 1947 FIG. I FIG. 2. HG 3 l Snventors 0 oswAL'o KOLBERT, ALBERT s. M SSER,

Patented May 17, 1949 SLIDE FASTENER Oswald Kolbert, Flushing. and Albert Sherman Messer, Ozone Park, N. Y., assignors to Waldes Kohinoor, Inc., Long Island City, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application February 3, 1947, Serial No. 726,106

This invention relates to improvements in slidefasteners and, with regard to its more specific aspects, to an improved stringer for a slide fastener of the type adapted to provide closure means for articles'fabricated from thermoplastic material, for example, handbags, waterproof garments such as raincoats, bandages, and the like,

A special problem arises in securing a slide fastener stringer, which conventionally consists of a pair of fabric tapes provided along their adjacent front edges with beads carrying longitudinal rows of interlocking fastener elements, to the edges of an opening in an article made from thermoplastic material. Formerly, the tapes were secured along their opposite or rear edges to the thermoplastic material bounding the opening by one or more lines of stitching. Such mode of securement was found to be open to the objection, however, that the stitching was likely to tear out from the thermoplastic material due to its low stitch-strength, i. e. its tendency to tear when pierced by stitches.

To overcome this objection, it has been suggested, for example in Patent No. 2,269,419, dated January 13, 1942, to provide a special stringer for slide fasteners used for this purpose employing tape made of rubber-like sheet or film material such as Vinylite, which can be welded under heat and pressure or, more commonly, heat-sealed to the same or similar thermoplasticmaterial bounding the edges of the article opening. It was found, however, that the use of such a material for the tapes of a slide fastener stringer is accompanied by other disadvantages. In the first place, it is very difficult to firmly secure an edge bead, usually consisting of a fabric cord, to a tape fashioned from rubber-like sheet material. Again, a tape made from a rubber-like material is inherently stretchable in both length-wise and cross-wise directions, and as the interlocking fastener elements of a slide fastener must be accurately spaced for smooth functioning of the slider, it becomes self-evident that stretching of the tape on which the elements are mounted is highly objectionable.

It is a principal object of the invention to provide an improved stringer for use with slide fasteners providing the closure means for articles fabricated from thermoplastic material which incorporates a tape that can be applied to the edges of the article opening by a weldingor heat sealing process and which, at the same time, is so constituted that an edge bead can be simply and firmly attached by the conventional methods known in the art, and is moreover non-stretch- 5 Claims. (01. 139-384) able to the same degree as the prior woven fabric tapes to which the fastener elements could be applied with fixed spacing as is desirable.

In its more specific aspects, the invention contemplates and aims to provide an improved tape for a slide fastener stringer which, while of the woven fabric type, is nevertheless so constructed and constituted that it may be applied to the edges of an opening of an article fabricated from thermoplastic material by a welding or heat-sealing process, 1. e. by the application of heat or heat and'pressure.

The foregoing objects are achieved according to the invention throughthe provision of a stringer which employs tapes of fabric woven in part from threads or yarn assuring proper attachment of an edge bead thereto by the various methods known in the art and the mounting of the fastener elements on the bead with accurate spacing and without the danger of the tape becoming permanently stretched in use and the elements losing their uniform spacing, and in part from threads or yarn-composed of thermoplastic material capable of being heat-welded to the thermoplastic material of the article. In the preferred form of the invention, the warp threads which are'remployed in weaving the longitudinal inner edge zone of the tape, i. e. the edge portion opposite to the bead, are composed of thermoplastic material which is like or similar to thermoplastic material from which the article is fabricated, whereas the warp threads employed in the weaving, of the front edge zone of the tape,

i. e. the portion adjacent the edge which carries the bead and mounts the fastener elements, are

composed of ordinary or natural fibers such as cotton. By providing thermoplastic warp threads only in the edge zone of the tape which is to be secured to the article, the non-stretchable properties characterizingthe conventional woven fabric tape is retained in the zone of the tape adjacent its element-carrying edge. Hence, distortion of the tape in frequent use as is likely to occur when made from rubber-like sheet material is avoided and smooth functioning of the slider is assured.

According to a modified form of the invention, the tape is woven from threads of which the longitudinal or warp threads are composed of natural fibers such as cotton, and the weft or cross threads are of thermoplastic material. In the modified tape, the use of the thermoplastic weft threads provides for heat-sealing of the tape along its rear vertical edge to the thermoplastic material of the article, while the frontthat is to be secured to the and in succeeding views, the threads composed of from which all of the weft threads of;the mod- I ifled form of tapes are composed may be, one of thesuitable synthetic resins and the polymers.

thereof, for example, vinyl, chloride resin. -Accordingly, a stringer tape as proposed, .when

brought into interface engagement with the thermoplastic material bounding the edges of the article opening, can be readily heat-sealed to said edges as by the application of heat or heat and a pressure in the well known manner.

In the accompanying drawings illustrating the improved slide fastener stringer of the invention in its various stages of fabrication- Fig. 1 is a weaving diagram of the tape employed in the improved stringer;

Fig. 2 is a magnified plan view of a short length of tape following attachment of the element-securing edge bead;

Fig. 3 is a similar view of a finished stringer with elements mounted on the bead;

Fig. 4 is a similar view showing the finished stringer applied to the edge of an article made from thermoplastic material:

Figs. 1A, 2A. 3A and 4A are sections taken through the tapes and stringers illustrated in Figs. 1-4, respectively; I

Fig. 5 is a weaving diagram of a modified form of tape; and

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 4 illustrating a finished stringer employing a tape woven according to the Fig. 5 diagram applied to the edge of an article made from thermoplastic material.

Referring to the drawings, Fig. 1 illustrates the weaving diagram of the preferred form of tape according to the invention, wherein reference character I designates the longitudinal or warp threads employed in the weaving of the front edge zone of the tape and which are in the nature of threads or yarn composed of natural fibers such as cotton, and reference character 2 designates the warp threads used in the weaving of the rear edge zone of the tape, 1. e. the portion article, the warp threads 2 being threads or yarn of thermoplastic material, such as vinyl chloride resin. The wefts 3 which bind both the warp threads I and 2 may be and preferably are composed of natural yarn such as cotton. Preferably, and as shown in the drawing, the zone of the tape employing the cotton warp threads I extends approximately twothirds the width of the tape as measured from the front or left longitudinal edge thereof, with the width of the inner edge zone whose warp threads are of thermoplastic material extending the remaining one-third. However, such proportioning may vary within reasonable limits.

Fig. 2 illustrates in greatly enlarged scale a tape woven as in the Fig. 1 diagram, to which the edge head I has been applied. As seen in Fig. 2A, the bead l is shown to consist of two fabric cords la, 4b secured against the opposite faces ofthermoplastic material are identified by stippling. With the tape provided along its front edge with a bead, the fastener elements 5 may be secured by running the tape through a conventional slide fastener assembling machine, for example. Since the bead 'and the adjacent zone of the tape is substantially non-stretchable, to the same degree that the conventional fabric tape is non-stretchable, the elements may be secured so as to have and maintain uniform pitch distance. The finished stringer is now ready to be applied to the edge of an opening of an article fabricated from thermoplastic material designated Ii in Figs. 4 and 4A. To secure the stringer to the article, the inner edge zone thereof whose warp in Fig- '5, all'of the warp threads employedin the weaving of the tape are made-from natural V yarn or filaments, such as cotton, which are substantially non stretchable in longitudinal direction, whereby the finished tape is also substantially non-stretchable longitudinally throughout its full width. In the modified form, the weft threads .9 which 'bind the longitudinal warp threads 8 are in the nature of yarns or filamentscomposed of-thermoplastic material such as vinyl chloride resin. A finished stringer I0 incorporating the modified tape illustrated in Fig. 5 may be attached to the thermoplastic material of the article 12 indicatedin Fig. 6 by the conventional heat-sealing process employed in securing the stringer as is illustrated in Figs. 4 and 4A.

Slide fastener stringers employing both of the disclosed forms of tape may be readily applied to articles made from thermoplastic material by the simple heat-sealing process described, it being observed that each of the thermoplastic warp threads 2 of the tape illustrated in Figs. 1-4, and each 'of the weft threads 9 for the width of the joint when the modified form of tape according to Figs. 5 and 6 is employed is individual-y sealed to the thermoplastic material of the article, so that a seam in the nature of lines of spot-welds is achieved. Moreover, due to the composition of the tape along its front or bead carrying edge or to the use of warp threads through the full width of the tape composed of cotton threads or yarns. both forms of tapes according to the invention are substantially non-stretchable, so that the fastener elements applied thereto may have substantially uniform pitch spacing throughout the life of the stringer. Tapes employing the woven construc- V out the above construction without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in. the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

We claim:

1. In a stringer for a slide fastener providing closure meansfor an article, a woven fabric tape adapted to carry a bead along its longitudinal front edge, the longitudinal front edge zone of said tape being woven in part from threads or yarns of natural fibers which are arranged longitudinally, whereby the tape is substantially non-stretchable in the direction of its length, and the longitudinal rear edge zone of said tape which is adapted to be connected to the article being woven in part of threads or yarns of thermoplastic material, whereby the tape may be heat-sealed to the article along said rear zone.

2. In a stringer for a slide'fastener providing closure means for an article, a woven fabric tape adapted to carry a bead along its front longitudinal edge, the warp threads of the tape being composed of natural fibers and the weft threads of the tape being of thermoplastic material whereby the tape can be heat-sealed to the article along its rear longitudinal edge.

3,. ma stringer for a slide fastener providing closure means for an article, a woven fabric tape adapted to carry a bead along its longitudinal front edge, said tape being woven in part of threads or yarns of natural fibers arranged longitudinally and in part of threads or yarns of thermoplastic material arranged so that the tape can be heat-sealed along its rear longitudinal edge to the article.

4. In a stringer for a slide fastener providing closure means for an article, a woven fabric tape adapted to carry a bead along its front longitudinal edge, the warp threads of the tape in said tape may the zone adlacent its bead carrying edge being composed of natural fibers and the warp threads in the longitudinal rear edge zone of the tape being of thermoplastic material whereby the tape can be heat-sealed to the article along said rear zone.

5. In a slide fastener providing-closure means for an article, a tape adapted to carry fastener elements along one longitudinal edge thereof, said tape having a plurality of longitudinally extending thermoplastic threads woven thereinto adjacent the opposite longitudinal edge only whereby be heat-sealed along said opposite longitudinal edge to the article.

OSWALD KOLBERT. ALBERT SHERMAN MESSER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

